why (and how) to switch to kicad

Why (and how) to switch to

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Pronunciation• Official: Kee-Cad, Most people: Kye-Cad • Tribute to Chris Gammell

Why I choose KiCad• I don’t want to be limited• I can’t afford any paid software• I want to share my design

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KiCad Myth Burst

KiCad is amateur software that is not meant for professional designCheck Michael Ossmann’s Daisho project

KiCad is into endless developmentThe recent “stable” version 4.0.2 is release on Feb. 2016 for Win/Mac/Linux. http://kicad-pcb.org/download/

KiCad is not stableKiCad crashes much less than Altium (for me, but still annoyances here and there)

You get what you paid forYou get more than what you paid for because it is free!

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Compare with Eagle (Free edition)Advantages:Hierarchical schematicsNo limitation on size/layers3D viewFreedom of editing PCB footprints

Disadvantages:Some UI annoyancesNot as huge library collections

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Basic workflow of KiCad

EeschemaSchematic Design

Schematic library editor

PcbnewPCB Design

PCB footprinteditor

cvpcb

.sch

.net

.kicad_pcb

gerbers

GerbView

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Demo

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Some UI tipsKiCad UI is a bit anti-human especially for those familiar with Eagle/Altium. It is very normal to get frustrated at the beginning.

De-frustrating tips:In Eeschema: Preferences->Hotkeys->List Current KeysIn Pcbnew: Preference->Hotkeys->List Current KeysRemember Edit, Drag, Move, Delete hotkeys

Mouse context menu is very context sensitive:Context menu is always depended on where the mouse pointer (not cross) is pointing to

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Some important concepts• Schematic library and PCB footprints are separate• Components symbol does not contain footprint

information, e.g.,

• This is very convenient for quickly drawing out the schematic. Also good for reusing schematic symbols.

• A cache library is generated so the schematic can be opened by a machine that does not have the same library installed.

This is a generic resistor. The schematic library does not mandate its packaging being 0603, 0805 or axial

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• Schematic symbols are associated with PCB footprint using Eeschema or cvpcb

• Symbol may contain “footprint filter” to ease association

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• Pick correct symbol according to footprint is sometimes necessary

E B C

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• PCB layers

F/B.Cu – Front copper (Top/Bottom)

F/B.Adhes – Front /Back adhensive (tGlue/bGlue)

F/B.Paste – Front/Back solderpaste (tCream/bCream)

F/B.SilkS – Front/Back silkscreen (tNames/bNames)

F/B.Mask – Front/Back solder mask (tStop/bStop)

*.User – misc user defined information

Edge.Cuts – Board outline (Milling)

Margin - ?

F/B.CrtYd – Front/Back CourtYard for components

F/B.Fab – Fabrication comments (tDocu/bDocu)

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Useful Resources• Contextual Electronics

https://www.youtube.com/user/contextualelectronic

• KiCad Forum http://kicad.info/

• Lots of libraries https://github.com/cpavlina

• More 3D moduleshttp://smisioto.no-ip.org/elettronica/kicad/kicad-en.htm

• Tutorials http://kicad-pcb.org/help/tutorials/

• CircuitHub https://circuithub.com/